Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Following up: Operation Eden, George Allen, newspapers online

One year after Katrina, it's good to see that Clayton Cubitt has added some updates to his Operation Eden blog. That's the one that followed the story of his mother's devastating loss of her Mississippi coast home in Hurricane Katrina, and stories of survivors and victims there and in their native New Orleans. I posted links to the blog several times over the months following the storm. His stories and photos were compelling, but he nearly abandoned the blog for a few months, trying to make a living to help his family, he says.Check out the lovely photo of Clayton's mother sitting on the porch of her unfinished new house. She spent part of the last year in Swansboro, NC, where a family offered her a home. After some months, though, the Gulf Coast, and the people who needed most, called to her. Now, with help, a house is going up:

It's been built by the sweat and love of volunteers from all over the country. From all walks of life they've come into the Gulf to help their brothers and sisters. Normal, average Americans, disgusted by their government's inaction, they've picked up hammers and done it themselves.One day there's a moldering heap of rubble, the next day hippie volunteers from Burning Man bulldoze it and take it away. One day it's a flat slab of concrete, the next day a pre-fab home kit is delivered by One House At A Time and New Hope Construction. One day there's a jumble of materials, the next day a church group from Oregon shows up and builds the frame and shell. A little later a group from Pennsylvania shows up and paints it my mom's favorite shade of green, and puts a tin roof on so she can hear the rain fall at night. And not to be outdone, a group from Alabama comes over and sheet rocks the interior, then comes back and builds her a deck for good measure.

Thanks to Boing Boing for the link.

On the Va. Sen. George Allen story, a new report, Beyond Macaca, in The Nation, showing past tendencies:

In 2000, he had hung a noose at his law office. When that fact was reported, he claimed it had "nothing to do with lynching." When it was reported that he also hung large Confederate flags in his house, he explained they were part of his flag collection. Allen had also opposed the 1991 Civil Rights Act and making Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday a holiday.

On the subject of newspapers' online product, something mentioned here often, a list from the Bivings Report: 9 Ways for Newspapers to Improve Their Websites (actually, 10 ways). Good, common-sense ideas that all online news sites should be considering, including RSS, tags, linking to local bloggers, and, number 10, doing something like a 'River of News' for cell phone readers.